PILE OF COCAINE FOUND IN THE HOUSE OF GUNNED DOWN FORMER CELTIC

CHARLES SMITH

Former Boston Celtics guard Charles Smith was shot in his Maryland house Thursday. Police say they found “a large amount of cocaine and evidence of a gambling operation” at Smith’s house. The illegal gambling operation is being investigated as a possible motive for the shooting. Smith is listed in serious condition in a Maryland hospital.

Smith was a second team All-American basketball player at Georgetown in the late ’80s. He was a member of the U.S. Olympic team in 1988 and the 1989 Big East Player of the Year under John Thompson. Smith ended up being passed over in the NBA Draft but played with the Boston Celtics and Minnesota Timberwolves. He later bounced to at least seven minor league teams then played basketball internationally in Serbia, Greece, Spain, Belgium, Italy and Argentina, retiring in 2001.

Smith also spent more than three years in prison after being convicted of vehicular homicide in the deaths of a pair of Boston University students. Smith struck and killed the students while on a 10-day contract with the Celtics. He fled the scene but was later arrested and admitted to having at least two beers before the accident.